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Snippet from the press release:

Restoration Robotics, Inc., a privately-held medical device company, today announced that it has raised $41 million in a Series C financing. Clarus Ventures led the financing and was joined by current venture capital investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Alloy Ventures and Interwest Partners. “We are delighted to have the financial and strategic support of these top investment firms,” said Jim McCollum, President and Chief Executive Officer of Restoration Robotics. “The ARTAS™ System has the potential to transform the global hair restoration market and we will now focus on the commercialization and U.S. market launch of the technology,” concluded McCollum.

Read the full text — Restoration Robotics Receives $41 Million in Series C Financing

We’re posted about Restoration Robotics in the past, most recently here and here.

As I’ve noted before, we’ve licensed some of the optical technology to Restoration Robotics for their follicular unit extraction (FUE) harvesting system.

I have a question regarding hair loss and low testosterone. Over the past 4 years my hair has been slowly thinning and now it’s at a point where it’s noticeable. I know I’m going to be bald sooner than later. Anyways, I’ve also been dealing with severe depression, loss of libido, I work out but don’t really gain any muscle, etc. After reading some of the symptoms of low testosterone I think that this could be my problem.

So my question is: If you have lowered testosterone in your body will that cause you to lose hair slower? Lets say I do get diagnosed with low testosterone and receive treatment, will my hair start to fall out faster? Can lowered testosterone actually cause hair loss?

Any significant amount of testosterone could cause the gene for balding to express if you have it, and there is no level that you can control to reduce your balding. Testosterone levels don’t work as an accelerator pedal regarding the speed at which your hair loss progresses.

Hi Dr, many thanks for the excellent blog. I just had a question regarding generic propecia. My doctor in the UK approved me as a good candidate for propecia and advised me I could now buy generic 1mg propecia online to save money. I’m currently on merck’s product and haven’t experienced any serious side effects.

The generic manufacturers on the site he suggested are Sunrise and Cipla. I can’t find much info on these companies and was wondering if you were familiar with them and if they are reputable, or furthermore if you think buying generic 1mg is a good idea in the first place, even if I have been examined by a Dr?

Any advise would be much appreciated. best

The generic should be the same as the name brand. The 1mg generic finasteride isn’t legally available due to patent restrictions in the US, but the 5mg generic is off patent and available. Things could be different in the UK. I suppose that if you get the generic from a reputable source it would be fine, but many online pharmacies are suspect since they don’t require a prescription in the first place. I’m not a fan of that.

As for the companies you asked about, I think Sunrise is US based, but I’m not too familiar with them. All I could really find was their website and an FDA warning letter from last year about the use of excessive active ingredients in some medications they made. I am more familiar with Cipla since I’ve been asked about them a few times before. Cipla is a very large pharmaceutical maker out of India and their biggest claim to fame is that they’re the world’s largest producer of HIV/AIDS fighting medications.

For more info on Cipla:

• Cipla.com - Company History
• Wired.com - The Treasure of Mumbai

For more info on Sunrise:

• SunrisePharma.com - About Us
• FDANews.com - Sunrise Pharmaceutical Warned After Using Excess API Amount

I am aware of a link between healthy hair and nails, and I am fairly unhappy with the state of both of mine. I have always had a high hairline, and at times my hair seems brittle, whilst my nails and the skin below them are constantly looking damaged. I am worried that I am experiencing male pattern baldness, as for the past two years (I am 18) I have noticed how high my hairline is.

Is it possible that I am experiencing something else causing this slight hair loss and bad hair and nail health, or does hair not actually permanently fall out due to being weak and unhealthy?

At 18 years old, there could be early genetic hair loss, but with your brittle nails there could be something else going on. Various rare syndromes, iron deficiency, or even skin rashes could cause these things. Anything is possible, but I can not evaluate you via the Internet and wouldn’t want to steer you in the wrong direction.

You need to see a doctor and determine if you are losing hair from genetic causes, disease, a combination of the two, or something else entirely.

Doc.. I have mostly gray hair that I dye. If I was to consider SMP to use as a concealer with my existing hair (like dermatch) What would happen if one day I decided to let my hair go gray? I’d be left with dark SMP and gray hair. What then?

Also actor Joey Lawrence looks to me like he has had SMP. What do you think?

The color for Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP) can be made gray, which would probably solve your issue if you decided to stop coloring your hair before you had it done. Most SMP procedures can turn some shade of gray over time, and that can be easily targeted.

As for Joey Lawrence (at right), he does have what looks like a closely cropped hair style, but I don’t know if he had pigmentation done or if it’s just a short haircut. It’s certainly the kind of look the SMP technique can achieve.

Dr.Rassman
I had a ht in October of 2010 and things were going well up until the seventh month when I was injured and lost allot of blood. I would like to know, would this loss of allot of blood affect my ht even though things were looking good before this happened. If it would hurt it, does that mean the hair i’ve lost from the transplanted areas will never grow back or will they grow back after I’m back to normal. I’m in my ninth month and things look much worse than they did in my fifth month. I didn’t think the injury I had would have any effect upon my HT results. I’ve been told that right now my hemoglobin is just a little bit lower than it should be. Do you think I’ve wasted all my money and will have to have this done over again. I’m hoping lost transplanted hair will grow back again.

I am assuming that your injury did not directly impact your transplant area. If that is the case, then the hair transplant should grow like your normal hair if the original surgery was successfully and skillfully done.

If you are having hair loss in the transplanted area, see your surgeon and get his/her opinion. I can not tell you much without seeing you.

I began to experience Propecia side effects about one month ago, and about two weeks ago stopped taking the drug. After two weeks without the drug the side effects had disappeared. My dermatologist told me to take Propecia every other day from now on to limit possible side effects. In addition to Propecia I am taking Procerin, applying Rogaine, and shampooing with Nizoral three times a week. I wrote in in February about diffuse hair loss through out my head; today you can hardly tell I lost any hair. I have been taking propecia since March 4.

My main question is if this drug could have provided such benefit in such a short time, and if not how can i be sure that I do not need it? As learned in my other question, I had been through very stressful times before the loss occured. I am 18 years old with no immediate family history of hair loss. On a side note, my temple points had seemed to be gone back in the winter, though now they are back in full.

It sounds like you are getting the response you need and want from Propecia (finasteride 1mg). You’ve been taking it since March, and so it’s entirely possible that you saw regrowth in that time from the medication.

I doubt that the other things you are using are helping as much, but that’s one of the risks in using a few products at once. You have no way of knowing which one is the most beneficial. Stopping the finasteride could result in losing the gains you’ve made… or things could maintain if the finasteride didn’t actually help you (for example: if your loss was temporary and related to stress). I have no way to know that for sure via the Internet, though.

You’re under the care of a doctor already, so you should be asking these questions to him/her. Regardless of how you regrew your hair, I’m pleased that you’re seeing success with your regrowth goal.

Hello,

I’m a 21 year old male. I’ve always had a thick head of fine hair. Over the past 3 years i’ve been concerned with hairloss, probably way over paranoid. There hasn’t been any change in my hair line and no one has mentioned anything to me regarding it looking thinner. I just worry cause i seem to shed alot of hair. I can find 20+ hairs on my pillow (granted i do move alot in my sleep). Strands will come out when i comb and run my hand through my hair. My hair just seems to come out relatively easy. Is this common for finer hair?

To determine if you are losing your hair, you should have an examination. Losing hair on your pillow doesn’t really mean anything to me as you normally lose 100 hairs per day, often at night if you are a rough sleeper, scratch your scalp, or brush it too vigorously.

The presence of different hair thicknesses (fine vs coarse) and hair character (curly vs straight) does not impact the number of hairs you lose every day, nor does it cause more or less hairs to be found on your pillow.

Hi,

I used to have a kind of cowlick on one of my temples. Over the years my hair in that area has gone. Since then I have had 2 successful transplants including replacing the hair in that same area. The new hair on the same temple has grown into a cowlick again even though the transplanted hair from my donor area is straight and the rest of the transplanted hair is straight.

Is this unusual in that transplanted hair has somehow taken on the characteristics of hair that was previously there? Do the cells on the scalp somehow have a ‘memory’ or ability to control the characteristics of what new hairs are placed there? Hope this makes sense!

Thanks

The transplanted hair almost always takes on the character of its source. In body hair transplants (chest to scalp) the donor hair often changes a bit, getting longer than when it was growing on the chest. There is no memory that I know of, but I do believe that the character of the skin may influence the character of the hair on a mechanical basis alone.

I am a 21 year old male. When I pull the hair at the corners (above the temples) I can lose 2 or 3 hairs at a time. The hairs here seem to fall out much easier compared to the rest but is this just normal?

It’s not necessarily “normal” for the hairline corners to be weaker than the rest of the hairline, but it could be due to the maturation of your hairline or early balding. Or it could be something as simple as styling product (hair spray, gel) in your hair that is trapping the hairs going through the regular growth cycle from falling out during your daily activities.